Artikelen YCDW
Lecture 1: Introduction into digital media in the
lives of youth (Loïs Schenk)
Overview
1. Definitions
a. Youth culture
b. Social media
2. Disrupting or enriching traditional culture?
3. How is it used?
4. Why use social media?
5. Approaches in youth development
6. Identity development during adolescence
7. Practical information
Definitions
Culture
“A group’s distinctive way of life, including its beliefs and values, its customs, and its art and
technologies” (Arnett & Hughes, 2012; p 311)
Geographical
Social
Temporal
Youth culture
- Shared beliefs, behaviours, practices and values of young people within a particular society or
subculture
- The ways in which young individuals express themselves, interact with one another and
distinguish themselves from older generations
- Youth culture is dynamic and can vary significantly across time and place, reflecting the
cultural, social, and historical context in which it emerges
Youth culture
- Fashion and style
- Music
- Language
- Social activities
- Values and ideals
- Media & technology
Digital media
Binary
Way to spread information
Social media
Sharing, following and collaborating (Granic et al. 2020)
,Disrupting or enriching traditional culture?
“digital media has disrupted/enriched traditional communication” – Ken Auletta
Social presence theory => “sense of being together” lower in digital social media
Disrupted
Social information processing theory => communicators’ interpersonal needs prompts them to try
their best
Channel expansion theory => users with experience will strive to develop necessary skills
Enriched
SIP: to sum SIP up; social media is not just disrupting or enriching our lives, it depends on the receiver
and how they proves information
How is it used?
How you use it
- Replacement or addition
- Passively or actively
Why use social media?
Why you use it
Uses & gratifications theory: “what purposes or functions does media offer for active receivers?”
Laswell (1948)
- Surveillance of the environment
- Affective need
- Transmission of social heritage
- Entertainment
Self-promotion, maintain existing relationships, need for creativity, escapism, expressing opinions
(Sheldon et al, 2017)
Approaches in youth development
Youth development
- Developmental tasks approach
Developmental tasks/challenges need to be fulfilled
- Risk and resilience approach
Differential life experiences among children
Developmental tasks approach
- Basic idea => hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development
cumulative
- Applications => e.g., Erikson’s developmental theory, Havinghurst developmental theory
- Media effect example => effects depend on the age of the child
Erikson’s developmental stages (1958)
Scary media content and trauma
, - Perceptual stage (2-7) = looking scary
- Conceptual stage (7+) = being real
Adolescents and celebrities
- Parents are examples (<12)
- Influencers are examples (+12)
Risks and resilience approach
- Basic idea => risk and protective factors explain differences between children cumulative
risk model
- Applications => snowball effect, turn around model
Bronfenbrenner development ecological model (2005)
Ecological model
- Micro = how do parents monitor and regulate their children’s media use (tracking screentime,
keeping media outside of the bedroom)?
- Exo = is school offering cases on online safety and social media policies such as banning the
smartphone from the classroom?
- Macro = what do we believe and value regarding social media. Is it entertainment, or
dangerous?
Interconnected, but not identical
Interconnected, but not identical
, - Anonymity; different, more extreme forms of behaviour, e.g. cyberbullying
- Creativity; playing around, discovering who you are
- Asynchrony; communication at your convenience, breaking time and space constraints
- Controllability; the ability to decide what information to share or omit
Identity development during adolescence
Key components
- Self-image; how young people perceive themselves
- Self-esteem; the ability to appreciate this self-image
Gentile, D. A., & Sesma, A. (2003). Developmental
approaches to understanding
media effects on individuals.
- Address common beliefs regarding media effects, and how these beliefs can restrict a fuller
comprehension of how various media influence youth.
- Describe two general approaches to development: one based on normative developmental
theory (developmental task approach) and one focused on individual differences among
children (risk and resilience approach)
Seven myths about media effects
1. Media effects are simple and direct (Most media effects are cumulative and subtle, even
when they are designed to influence behaviour)
2. The effects of media violence are severe (watching violent media can have many effects,
more broadly than effects on aggression; “culture of disrespect”)
3. Media effects are obvious (the effects of violent media are usually indirect, subtle and
cumulative and are therefore not always obvious)
4. Violent media affect everyone in the same way (there are at least four main effects of
watching a lot of violent media; aggressor effect, victim effect, bystander effect and appetite
effect)
5. Causality means “necessary and sufficient” (multicausal issue)
, 6. Causality means immediacy (long-term effects)
7. Effects must be “big” to be important (a small effect is still an effect and can have an impact)
These persistent myths underscore the importance of thinking carefully about what the
effects of media violence on individuals may be.
Two developmental theoretical approaches can help researcher to understand the effects of media
violence on children:
Developmental task approach:
- Developmental task = a capacity or skill that is important for concurrent and future
adaptation (language acquisition, development of attachment relationships, formation of
peer relationships, etc.)
- Used to provide a set of criteria by which to judge adaption at any point in development
- Provides researchers and practitioners with a framework for understanding how
development unfolds over childhood.
- The effects that violent (or other) media may have on children and youth may be different
depending on the age of the child, because as children face different developmental tasks,
media are likely to have a greater or lesser effect depending on the specific issues they are
facing at that time.
Things displayed in the media that relate to the key developmental tasks at that age of
the child will most likely have to most impact on them.
Risk and resilience approach:
- Focusses on differential life experiences among children that may put them at risk for future
maladaptation (risk factors), and those factors that serve to “protect” children from this risk
exposure (protective factors)
- Useful to help explain why we may see greater effects of media violence on some children
than on others.
- Risk gradient (cumulative risk model); the more risks encountered by a child, the greater the
likelihood of problematic functioning
- Resilience; despite experiencing severe adversity, some children display normal or above
normal levels of competence across an array of domains.
Occurs as result of multiple protective factors
Subrahmanyam, K., & Šmahel, D. (2011). Digital youth: The
role of media in
Development, Chapter 4 Constructing Identity Online:
Identity Exploration and Self-Presentation
- Focusses on the formulation of a unified sense of self, in other words the construction of a
coherent and stable identity, which is an important adolescent developmental task
- “an identity is, at least in part, an explicit theory of oneself as a person”
- This chapter examines theoretical conceptions about identity in the context of adolescence
and explores the meaning of the terms online self-presentation and virtual identity
Conclusions
- Identity is a multidimensional construct and is compromised of different aspects, including
personal, social, gender and ethnic identities.
Online identity is similarly complex and can be used either to refer to users’ online self-
presentation or to a more psychological conception of their online personas or selves
